Photo by Bryan Mullennix
Hurricane María made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. A year later, the island is still struggling to recover from the aftermath of the Category 4 storm. Boricuas in and out of Puerto Rico are commemorating the anniversary of María in powerful ways that remind the island how strong its people are. Still, others want the world to remember the island is still suffering the consequences of the hurricane.
From protests to musical performances, this is how Puerto Ricans are commemorating the first anniversary of Hurricane María.
University of Puerto Rico’s choice performed “Amanecer Borincano,” one of Puerto Rico’s most emblematic songs (written by Boricua composer Alberto Carrión) on the coast of Yabucoa, where Hurricane María made landfall last year. The group began the performance at 6:15 am, the time when María made landfall.
After hurricanes, people usually place blue tarps to cover the shingles blown off their roofs. The organization PRxPR started a campaign on Facebook that invited people to share a blue tarp as their profile picture that reads #MariaIsStillHere. The campaign is meant to remind people of the many issues post-María that still plague the island today.
Puerto Ricans across the United States are commemorating the anniversary by hosting the #PRDayOfAction. The campaign is hosted by Mijente and invites people to download a social media kit to share on their accounts to inform the world about the crisis Puerto Rico is still facing.
Amnesty International reminded Donald Trump this morning of the updated death toll in Puerto Rico, which the president blamed on the Democrats last week over Twitter. The group shared a video of members hanging a banner on one of Trump’s hotels in Washington DC with the hashtag #WeStandWithPuertoRico.
The #PRDayOfAction also took active presence on various US cities, such as Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago. Orlando, which is one of the cities where most Puerto Ricans moved after the hurricane, hung a Puerto Rico flag on a bridge with the number of dead counted by Harvard University, 4,645.
